Netherlands Festival Calendar 2024 - 2025
The Dutch have a knack for throwing a good party. The nation celebrates everything life has to offer with an amazing number of festivals every year. There is an event to suit every taste and mood, whether you enjoy music, art, or cuisine. The following list provides an overview of important festivals in major cities you must not miss in 2024 - 2025. To know more about the festivals and how to visit them, please click on the links below!
31 October - 2 November 2024
Wonderlicht Zaanstad
Description: Wonderlicht is a mystical 2 km evening stroll that features street theater, light installations, fire shows, and more.
Link: wonderlicht.nl
9 - 16 November 2024
GLOW Eindhoven Light Art Festival
Description: Every year in November, the otherwise industrial city of Eindhoven transforms into a magical fairy tale of light, known as GLOW Eindhoven. This annual light art festival attracts thousands of visitors from all over the world who come together to enjoy the breathtaking open-air exhibition of innovative light artworks created by international artists using new media technologies, such as computers, sensors, animations, and projections.
Link: GLOW Eindhoven Light Art Festival 2024 | All You Need to Know Before You Go | Tips for Your Visit
15 November 2024 - 5 January 2025
Valkenburg Christmas Market
Description: During the Christmas season, Valkenburg’s amazing caves are transformed into stunning Christmas Markets. More than 50 stores inside the Velvet and Municipal Caves sell Christmas decorations and presents. Along with that, the entire city is engulfed in a Christmassy ambiance with a dazzling Christmas parade, gorgeous music, and dance festival in traditional costumes, earning it the name of 'The Christmas Town.'
16 November 2024
Sinterklaas Procession
Description: Saint Nicholas (better known as Sinterklaas, the source of Santa Claus of the West), arrives in the Netherlands on the first Saturday after Sint Maarten (11th November) on a riverboat from ‘Spain’ laden with gifts and mandarins. He then exchanges his boat for his white horse Ozosnel (previously Amerigo) and parades through the streets with the Zwarte Pieten (literally “Black Peters”), his merry band of helpers who throw cookies and candies to the crowds.
28 November 2024 - 19 January 2025
Amsterdam Light Festival
Description: The annual Amsterdam Light Festival (ALF) fills the Dutch capital's canals with magnificent works of light art every winter. Designers, architects, and artists from all around the world submit hundreds of concepts each year, out of which 20 to 30 artworks are chosen for display in the festival by a selection committee.
Link: Amsterdam Light Festival 2024-2025 | 13th Edition | Dates, Opening Hours, and Free Walking Route Map
5 - 23 December 2024
Royal Christmas Fair
Description: The Royal Christmas Market in The Hague is one of the biggest Christmas markets in the Netherlands. Among the sparkling lights and familiar Christmas carols are suggestions for gifts, winter fashion, and Christmas decorations.
13 December 2024
Gouda by Candlelight
Description: There are a lot of activities and markets held in Gouda on this day. Candlelight is the only source of illumination in the city as night falls. Christmas candlelight is also used to highlight the structures in the historic market square and the Gothic town house. The Christmas gospel is recited by the mayor. Christmas carols are then sung collectively underneath the fir tree.
Link: welcometogouda.com/discover-gouda/events/gouda-bij-kaarslicht
14 - 15 December 2024
Charles Dickens Festival
Description: With the tagline "Christmas City Deventer," the historic city celebrates Advent with a variety of events, including the Dickens Festival featuring characters from Dickens' novels.
14 December 2024 - 2 March 2025
Ice Sculpture Festival Zwolle
Description: Zwolle hosts the biggest ice sculpture event in Europe at the end of the year. Several sculptors from various countries use 275,000 kg of ice and snow to build unique figures of height up to 20 feet each.
Link: ijsbeelden.nl/en
31 December 2024
New Years Eve in Rotterdam
Description: Every year, Rotterdam hosts a massive fireworks show near the Erasmus Bridge.
Link: hetnationalevuurwerk.nl
1 January 2025
New Year´s Dive Scheveningen
Description: To ring in the New Year, hundreds of people jump into the sea every year around noon on New Year's Day. For the past 40 years, this has been the norm. The New Year's Dive is held in front of Scheveningen's Kurhaus Hotel.
18 January 2025
National Tulip Day
Description: The Dutch tulip producers organize the tulip season's opening on the Dam in Amsterdam. Everyone can pick tulips for free in a specially designed picking area on the Dam.
Link: iamsterdam.com/en/whats-on/calendar/festivals/events/national-tulip-day
13 - 15 February 2025
Highlight Delft
Description: Highlight Delft showcases cutting-edge future concepts developed by designers, artists, researchers, and businesses that are on exhibit in distinctive settings.
Link: highlightdelft.nl
2 - 4 March 2025
Dutch Carnival
Description: Carnival is mainly celebrated in the southern regions of the Netherlands. The majority of people in the primarily Catholic provinces of North Brabant and Limburg celebrate carnival by singing and dancing in vibrant costumes and going to one of the many carnival parades.
20 March - 11 May 2025
Keukenhof Gardens Flower Show
Description: 7 million tulips, daffodils, hyacinths, lilies, roses, carnations, and irises create a vibrant sea of blooms over the 79 acres (32 hectares) of Keukenhof every year. Also dubbed ‘The Garden of Europe,’ it is the largest flower park in the world.
12 April 2025
Bloemencorso (Flower Parade) Bollenstreek
Description: Every year in the middle of April, the UNESCO Intangible Cultural Heritage Bloemencorso Bollenstreek makes its 42 km journey from Noordwijk to Haarlem, passing by Keukenhof Gardens.
18 April - 5 May 2025
Tulip Festival Northeast Polder
Description: Near the World Heritage Site of Schokland, the charming town of Urk, and De Orchideen Hoeve, this yearly event boasts the largest tulip fields in the Netherlands.
Link: tulpenfestival.nl/en
26 April 2025
King’s Day
Description: King's Day is probably one of the most popular and flamboyant celebrations in the Netherlands. Every year on April 27 (or the day before if it falls on a Sunday), the Dutch celebrate their King Willem-Alexander's birthday as a national holiday with a lot of music, dancing, flea markets, and fun fairs all over the country.
Link: Celebrating King’s Day in the Netherlands | Amsterdam Koningsdag
5 May 2025
Liberation Day
Description: On this day the Dutch celebrate the liberation from the German occupation in WWII. Various events are held on this day, such as ‘Liberation Music Festivals’.
Link: 4en5mei.nl/english
7 - 8 June 2025
Kaeskoppenstad
Description: Kaeskoppenstad transforms the city center of Alkmaar into d'Oude Stad (old city). The 16th century is the focus of this yearly event. Hundreds of actors portray Alkmaar as it was 449 years ago against the historic backdrop of the Old Town.
21 June 2025
Flag Day in Scheveningen
Description: The ‘Vlaggetjesdag’ celebrates the New Herring fish's (matjes) arrival. Additionally, Scheveningen (The Hague) hosts a wide range of events.
15 - 18 July 2025
Vierdaagse in Nijmegen
Description: The Vierdaagse is the world's largest walking and running event, drawing 45,000 participants from 70 different nationalities and age groups of 11 to 90. Furthermore, Nijmegen has a number of festivals, concerts, and food markets as part of the 4-day celebrations.
Link: 4daagse.nl/en
26 July - 3 August 2025
Amsterdam Pride
Description: Amsterdam honors the equality of heterosexual, gay, lesbian, and transgender persons every year in the first part of August. Of course, the most well-known Pride event in Amsterdam is the Canal Parade.
Link: pride.amsterdam
20 - 24 August 2025
SAIL Amsterdam
Description: Historic ships from across the globe sail into the city to celebrate nautical history along with city-wide performances and concerts.
Link: https://www.sail.nl/en
3 - 7 September 2025
HISWA te Water
Description: Because of the wide range of boats and brands from both domestic and international brands, ‘HISWA te water’ is regarded as the most comprehensive boat expo in Europe. The Bataviahaven in Lelystad showcases around 250 new vessels.
Link: hiswatewater.nl/en
7 - 8 September 2025
Bloemencorso (Flower Parade) Zundert
Description: Bloemencorso Zundert is the world's biggest flower parade. The floats are enormous pieces of art composed of flowers, papier-mâché, cardboard, and steel wire. All of them are built by volunteers. Dahlias are the sole flower chosen to adorn the floats during the Bloemencorso Zundert.
Link: corsozundert.nl
28 September 2025
Amsterdam Roots Festival
Description: A freely accessible full day of ethnic food, music, dance, theater, and workshops.
Link: amsterdamroots.nl/en
3 October 2025
Leiden’s Ontzet (Relief of Leiden)
Description: On this day, Leiden commemorates its freedom from Spanish rule on October 3, 1574. There are fairs and DJ and musical group performances during the celebrations.
Link: leideninternationalcentre.nl/living-here/leisure/leidens-ontzet